African Americans don't need black leaders to tell us when to be angry.

This is going to be short and sweet.

In the aftermath of the riots in Ferguson MO after the decision by a grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson many conservative/right wing talking heads blamed President Obama, Eric Holder, and Al Sharpton for the violence. In conservative minds those men somehow roused the whole black community to action and violence.

I'm sure all three are amazed that they have such sway over black minds. (I'm sure that President Obama is kicking himself in the ass for not using that power to make African Americans vote in the mid-term elections.)

I was surprised at this because the conservative theory seems to be based on a belief that we as black people don't get mad or angry unless a "black leader" tells us to. They seem to believe they in the deaths of Eric Garner or Michael Brown that we would have just shrugged our shoulders, and continued on with life if Al Sharpton didn't get involved.

Of course this theory ignores the fact that far too many of us (especially black men) have had bad experiences with the police. It ignores the fact that many of us are stopped are harassed by the police because we don't belong somewhere or the cop has a "hunch" about us. The fact that I have never been in trouble, am a former soldier and serve as an elected member of my local school board doesn't mean much when a cop decides I'm "suspicious". I will be stopped, detained, and harassed without so much as "Sorry for the inconvenience sir" when the cop decides that I'm clean. Imagine how that makes you feel about the police, you know the very guys/gals that are supposed to protect us.

Many black men know the tired lie cops tell of there being a B&E ( Breaking & Entering) in the area and that they or their car match the description. We all know that everyone of these BS stops can end up with us dead and the cop who killed us getting off because society holds them to a different standard and gives them a benefit of the doubt it would never give a black man.

So when we hear cases like those of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, or Tamir Rice we get mad, we get mad all on our own!

It's not the Al Sharpton's of the world that make us angry it's the JustUs system in this country that does. Fix that BS system and you wont hear from Al Sharpton again.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com.